Steal My Code!

I stumbled across a great post on Stack Overflow talking about taking code from others and using it for your own. I liked it so much, that I used the core of the article to explain how I feel about others using my code.

Many people attribute the quote to the famous artist Pablo Picasso:

“Good artists borrow, great artists steal.”

Taking something without permission is just plain wrong, especially when you pretend it’s yours. That’s plagiarism. But the quote I mentioned earlier uses “steal” to mean something different. When you borrow something, it’s still someone else’s. If you want to own an idea, you need to make it yours. You need to learn from that idea and then explain in your own way.

Taking credit for someone else’s idea is borrowing; understanding an idea and weaving it into your own work, that’s what he meant by theft.

I encourage you to use the code I post on this website for your own personal use. However, you need to understand a few important things before you do so.

My home lab serves as the testing ground where I write and verify the code for the concepts I discuss in my articles. What works for me in my small environment may not be suitable for production deployment in your organization. I’ll make every attempt to mention in my articles whether the code I’ve written is appropriate for corporate settings, but it’s crucial to test it before running.

You can use my code, but you still need to give me the credit

Let me be real with you… I wanna do my bit and assist others. I just want to be acknowledged for helping people. Neglecting to acknowledge your sources undermines the core principles of a thriving community. You’re not contributing to what came before you. Your actions are harming the open source community and compromising the knowledge sharing process. Just do the right thing and give credit if you borrow from my site.

Creative Commons License and Usage Guidelines

The information and scripts on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This license is acceptable for Free Cultural Works.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

You are free to:

Share: copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format.
Adapt: remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

Under the following terms:

Attribution: You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions: You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

The Command Line Ninja website and associated code found on website was created by Mike Kanakos is licensed under CC BY 4.0